The first lady is helping to salvage her husband’s campaign. Will it be enough?
WASHINGTON — Campaigning for her husband in Florida, Jill Biden I took a break to drink tea.
She was on the second stop of a three-state tour, and reporters traveling with her had tried several times to get her to talk. They were curious to hear what she would say to Democrats who were so upset by President Joe Biden’s remarks. poor debate performance that they asked him to abandon his re-election efforts.
After drinking hibiscus tea with the mayor of Tampa, the first lady left a coffee shop. On her way to her car, she paused and turned to face reporters who were asking her questions.
“Why are you yelling at me? You know me,” she said, adding, “Don’t yell at me. Just talk.”
She walked away without answering their questions.
The public has come to know Jill Biden well in her three-plus years as a multi-tasking first lady. Now, as she steps in to help save her husband’s presidential campaign, she’s again facing criticism from critics who have painted her as a power-hungry woman pushing her aging husband to run for re-election so she can maintain her White House lifestyle.
Moreover, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken to hounding the first lady. This week, he claimed without evidence at a rally in Florida that she and the president’s son Hunter Biden are actually the ones running the country.
This week, the president’s wife of 47 years made a three-state trip to promote the Biden administration’s support for the military and is taking on a more traditional role as hostess to the nation, welcoming NATO leaders and their spouses for the alliance’s 75th anniversary summit. They and Hunter Biden are known as two of the people Biden listens to most, and both have encouraged the president to stay in the race.
Weeks before the debate, the public also saw Jill Biden in her role as family matriarch, sitting behind Hunter in federal court in Delaware as he was tried and convicted of a firearm offense.
Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, said Jill Biden’s most important role is as the president’s wife, not one of his many political and policy advisers.
“While every couple makes decisions together that affect their lives, they absolutely do, but as she has said more times than I can count, politics is his domain,” Alexander wrote in an email. “She is his biggest supporter and champion because she believes in him, and she fears for the future of our country if it goes the other way. Just as he has always supported her career, she supports his.”
According to Alexander, first ladies are like most women. They struggle with the question of whether they can be supportive, but not so much that their motives are questioned. They have to speak out, but not too loudly. They have to do their jobs well, but without too much fuss. Otherwise, they risk being accused of being overly ambitious or aggressive.
“Society has put all the first ladies, including Dr. Biden, in an impossible situation, especially with today’s social media, bots, and the right-wing machine fueling stories and creating false caricatures on every street corner,” Alexander said.
Jill Biden stuck by her husband as the post-debate drama unfolded, campaigning with him in North Carolina, New York and New Jersey. She broke off for some solo campaigning before reuniting with him in the White House for the Fourth of July.
On Monday, she replaced him again during a tour of North Carolina, Florida and Georgia, intended to rally support among veterans and military families, but also part of Biden’s broader effort to refocus the conversation on Trump.
She told the crowd she supports Biden’s decides to stay in the race.
“Despite all the talk about this race, Joe has made it clear that he’s going all in,” she said at all three stops. “That’s the decision he’s made. And just as he’s always supported my career, I’m going all in. I know you are too, or you wouldn’t be here today.”
As first lady, Jill Biden is the the first to work outside the White HouseShe is a professor of English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has taught since 2009.
The first lady was back at the White House on Tuesday in her role as hostess, welcoming NATO leaders and their spouses to the annual summit. She hosted a brunch for the spouses on Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and joined the president to welcome the couples to a White House dinner in the evening.
Yet this week, Jill Biden took on another new role: fashion consultant.
After brunch with the NATO spouses was over, she sent them advice for their visit to the presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains on Thursday.
“Please dress comfortably,” she said. “Don’t wear those heels, because you’re going in helicopters… so please wear flats, wear sneakers. Just be comfortable.”